'Indescribable atrocities' prompt higher bail for suspect in girl's death

As an ambulance crew on Thursday night rushed a 3-year-old Willimantic girl to Windham Hospital, where in a few minutes she would be pronounced dead, a paramedic began a grim accounting of the victim’s injuries.

As an ambulance crew on Thursday night rushed a 3-year-old Willimantic girl to Windham Hospital, where in a few minutes she would be pronounced dead, a paramedic began a grim accounting of the victim’s injuries.

Bumgarner-Ramos, who has several pending court cases — including assault, strangulation and drug possession charges — was arrested hours after the victim was pronounced dead and charged with first-degree assault, risk of injury to a minor and offense committed while on release.

Froehlich successfully petitioned Judge Hope Seeley to impose a $1 million cash bond on Bumgarner-Ramos. She said her office anticipates filing harsher charges — likely homicide — against Bumgarner-Ramos when a completed autopsy report is filed.

Froehlich said her office will also be seeking warrants for the arrest of “an additional person or persons” in the victim’s death.

Police were called to 11 Potter St. in Willimantic — the residence of Bumgarner-Ramos, the victim and a woman identified as Kim Lam — at 10:38 p.m. Thursday. The toddler was pronounced dead by a Windham Hospital emergency room doctor at 10:50 p.m., police said.

Witnesses told police Lam began screaming earlier in the evening that her daughter was not breathing. Lam said Bumgarner-Ramos, who lived with her in a basement apartment with the victim, had been babysitting the child on Thursday. When she returned from work, Lam said, she noticed bruising on her daughter’s face and vomit around her, according to the court report.

Bumgarner-Ramos told police the child struck her head days before on a heater, according to the affidavit. Lam reportedly told police Bumgarner-Ramos said the victim “probably had Lyme disease” and that was what caused the girl’s swollen face.

The Chief State’s Medical Examiner has not released a final cause of death for the girl, but the affidavit states she sustained “serious physical injury,” including trauma to her scalp, internal organs and genitals.

Bumgarner-Ramos’ lawyer, Ron Johnson, said his client was “devastated” by the girl’s death. Johnson requested Bumgarner-Ramos, who was initially held under psychiatric evaluation at Windham Hospital after threatening to kill himself, be placed in protective custody.

Page 2 of 2 - Bumgarner-Ramos’ case was transferred to Danielson Court’s Part A section, where more serious crimes are heard. He is due in court next on July 19.